1 / 7

What constitutes a family unit in ancient Israel

Hos 2:4. ?Plead, plead with your mother for she is not my wife and I am not her husband."Characters in the text:A female: ?Mother"Her children (?your mother")And a male speaker who states that he is not in a marital relationship. Who is the woman in Hos 2?. Suggestions:On the level of referenc

zody
Download Presentation

What constitutes a family unit in ancient Israel

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

    1. What constitutes a “family unit” in ancient Israel? The impact of extra-textual assumptions on scholarly research

    2. Hos 2:4 “Plead, plead with your mother for she is not my wife and I am not her husband.” Characters in the text: A female: “Mother” Her children (“your mother”) And a male speaker who states that he is not in a marital relationship

    3. Who is the woman in Hos 2? Suggestions: On the level of reference: - The people of Israel in the (post-)exilic period as YHWH’s adulterous wife - A goddess as YHWH’s (former) spouse - The city of Samaria as lover/spouse of a tutelary deity - The city of Jerusalem as lover of a tutelary deity - A city (Samaria) as “divine” mother of its inhabitants (tutelary goddess) - My suggestion: Israel as prostitute that is stalked and threatened by a man On the level of function: - (Post-)Exilic Israel as YHWH’s adulterous wife as metaphorical explanation and justification of Israel’s severe fate/ punishment - A provocative stylistic device (“undecidable”) - The objectified female character in a pornographic speech - My suggestion: a provocative, insulting and unsettling stylistic device that creates suspicion of the male speaker.

    4. How can all these interpretations be valid interpretations? Reconsideration of the relationship between evidence and hypothesis   no immediate deduction of a hypothesis from an object of investigation, rather: object of investigation is a state of affairs that has –> features that can serve as evidence for -> different hypothesis the hypothesis is developed based on investigation of the state of affaires <- by a methodological apparatus <- that is based on a set of particular background beliefs <- and that picks out particular features of the state of affairs -> that serve as evidence for a hypothesis Longino, Helen (1979). "Evidence and Hypothesis: An Analysis of Evidential Relations.” Philosophy of Science 46:33-56.

    5. Approaches in BS as background beliefs? Description of different aims and tools used in different methodological approaches to Hos 1-3: Source criticism - Study in pornography Redaction criticism - Studies in metaphor Form criticism - Studies in literary- theory Philological study Comparative study

    6. Material for my case study Self-declared “feminist” and non-feminist studies that at the same time represent different methodological approaches in BS: Q1: How do extra-textual presuppositions about the “textual female” influence the selection of state of affairs and evidence, the composition and application of a methodological apparatus and finally the hypothesis? Q2: In how far are extra-textual presuppositions about women and family units in ancient Israel distinct from methodological background beliefs? And in how far are they not?

    7. Overall question How can the impact of different extra-textual assumptions, about woman and family units in ancient Israel, on scholarly research be described in terms of a web of beliefs that includes assumptions about the subjecthood/objectification of females? Quine, Willard Van Orman (1951). “Two Dogmas of Empiricism.” The Philosophical Review 60: 20-43. Nussbaum, Martha (1995). “Objectification.” Philosophy and Public Affaires 24 (4): 249-291. Langton, Rae (2009). Sexual Solipsism: Philosophical Essays on Pornography and Objectification. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

More Related